For Seniors: How to Become a Top-Rated Seller on eBay

Being a Top-rated seller on eBay has its privileges, and any Top-rated seller has a badge next to his member’s user ID. The Top-rated seller designation is given to only those eBay PowerSellers who uphold the highest levels of customer service on the site.

The eBay Top-rated seller status rewards sellers who create the best buyer experiences, including these:

PowerSellers of all levels, from Bronze to Titanium, can qualify as eBay Top-rated sellers if they have at least 100 transactions and $3,000 in sales in the past year, and low Detailed Seller Ratings (DSRs) — where low means 1- and 2-star ratings — on no more than 0.5 percent of all transactions with U.S. buyers, in each of their four DSR categories.

Low-volume sellers (fewer than 400 annual transactions) can also become Top-rated sellers if they have two or fewer instances of 1- or 2-star ratings on each of the four DSR categories. After 400 transactions, the 0.5 percent requirement is applied.

The Top-rated seller DSR evaluation time period depends on your sales volume. For sellers with 400 or more transactions over the past three months, the time period evaluated is three calendar months. For all other sellers, it’s 12 calendar months.

Many sellers on the site with feedback ratings in the tens of thousands do not have Top-rated seller badges on their listings. That’s not because they’re not good people; it’s just that some of their transactions may have gone awry and resulted in negative feedback or low DSRs.

Give sellers with high feedback ratings the benefit of the doubt. Be sure to check the seller’s feedback and thoughtfully evaluate it. Many times, buyers don’t read the seller’s policies before they buy — and then give negative feedback (as in the case of buyers not reading the seller’s warnings when buying liquidation merchandise).